A lot of talking into was required to convince my beloved wife to accompany into the Monday night movies to see Foxcatcher and get an idea about the potential for the Academy Awards on this one. The first thing that came to my mind after watching Foxcatcher was its bleakness. The movie kept a very dull and grim atmosphere throughout its entire duration. The characters, the story, the surrounding … kind of everything was just bleak (thanks to Marc D’Amore for teaching me this word). But whereas other movies kind of sulk in their dullness, this movie pretty much hit the spot for me.

The basic plot which is based on a true story is the story of two brothers and their path to the Olympic Games of 1988 in Seoul and their “mentor” John DuPont (DO NOT CLICK THIS LINK BEFORE WATCHING THE MOVIE) from the wealthy DuPont family in the US. One important recommendation I would imply you is not to read anything further about the true story.

Courtesy of http://virginiafilmfestival.org/

Without any prior knowledge of the true story, I have to give this movie really good grades. It does bear a few minor problems but let’s stick with the pros first. All three main actors deliver absolute great performances; I know that “method acting” is in over-use these days but what all of them delivered was really diving into their characters and acting the s*** out of them. Channing Tautum has already proven that he can do more than just being the pretty boy but he really steps up his game here; he puts the vulnerability of an orphan adult alongside an uber-focus on winning in an amazing portrait of Mark Schultz. The way he walks, talks, wrestles, eats etc all seemed very “authentic”. Mark Ruffalo is probably not THE focus character but he also delivers a great performance – especially how he moved in this “wrestler” kind of way was pretty darn great. But now let’s get to the true star of this movie, the surprise, the transformation … Steve Carell as John DuPont. We all know and love Steve Carell mostly for his awkward character from “The Office” but also from different family/romantic comedy in which he mostly plays the same character. And whomever his agent is, he choose THE role to show the world that Steve Carell can do so much more. The make-up to turn the nice Mr Carell into the weird Mr DuPont is just the start. And then the way how Mr DuPont walks, how he displays himself in front of the team as “the Coach” is just so amazingly awkward in a somewhat scary way. I enjoyed every second of Steve Carell’s portray of John DuPont – it was so weird, crazy, awkward, gross … and from an acting perspective just absolutely stunning. The other element of the movie which I personally highly enjoyed was how the atmosphere was transported to the audience – everything was so grim and bleak. And at all times, it felt somewhat uncomfortable to watch this movie; you weren’t sure what was coming next and how everything comes together in the end. But that’s exactly what kept me at edge for most of the movie. The only negative point which has to be added – since it was rather major – was a problem the scripting (MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD). From the trailer it was rather evident that the relationship between Mr DuPont and Mark Schultz at some point turns sour. And that is a big premise of the movie and the entire story, but I didn’t like how the turn happened; it just happened so quickly and completely escalated all of a sudden. The move from admiration, friendship and fatherhood to hatred and dismay just went a little too sudden. And since that is big premise, it comes at the cost of the overall quality of an otherwise great movie.

So ultimately, I can highly recommend this movie. It is absolutely worth watching even though has few minor issues. The acting of Ruffalo and Tautam are already pretty darn good but Carrell’s portrait of John DuPont is the absolute icing on the cake. Before watching “Foxcatcher” I was pretty sure that Michael Keaton will be the next taker of the Golden Boy for Best Acting but I am not so sure any longer….